As if 630 home runs and a trip to the Hall of Fame were not enough, Ken Griffey Jr. has taken up a new activity since he retired in 2010: photography.
Most recently he was spotted taking pictures at the Masters where he captured an image of the winner, Rory McIlroy, celebrating on his knees that spread quickly online. But Griffey, a.k.a. the Kid, has been shooting for years in the sporting and non-sporting realms.
“Because I played baseball, then I’m not allowed to do anything else?” Griffey, 55, said in an interview. “They see me as one thing; that’s not necessarily who I am.”
Griffey tries to bring the perseverance he showed on the diamond to his life behind the lens. “What I’m trying to do is get better at something that I really enjoy doing,” he said. “I didn’t start off in the big leagues,” he added. “If you’re willing to learn and put in time, you’re going to get better.”
While at the Masters, Griffey picked up tips from professional photographers. “It really helped me understand about what’s in the foreground, the background: Will it be a distraction? If you asked me that 10 years ago, I’m fine, I don’t care what the background is. But now I’m looking at it.”
Griffey shared five of his favorite shots with The New York Times and the stories behind how he got them.
2025 | Tokyo
Shohei Ohtani
Griffey traveled to Tokyo for the Dodgers-Cubs regular season opener this year and photographed the Los Angeles superstar Shohei Ohtani. “Look at the attention to detail on how he puts on his equipment. How particular he is about it, the way he put on things.”
A trip to Kenya for a photographic safari put Griffey closer than he expected to wild animals. “I was like 20 feet away. At one point, one of the cheetahs ran underneath the safari vehicle.”
“We landed in Nairobi; it was five minutes from downtown. There were kids playing in the field next to a pack of lions; I’d say they were like a couple hundred yards away. It’s just a huge part of life there.”
Austin, Texas
Circuit of the Americas
Griffey has shot the annual motorcycle races at the Circuit of the Americas racetrack in Austin. Trying to catch motorcycles speeding by posed some photographic challenges: “It’s funny, because I actually learned how to pan that day. You just try to follow them. In 25 shots, I get like half the motorcycle. It was a learning experience.”
In a full-circle moment, Griffey caught Fernando Tatis Jr. on camera at a Padres game in Seoul. Griffey played against his father, Tatis Sr. “I was just taking pictures of the guys warming up right before the game. I was on the field; I was next to the dugout.”
“I just captured it. It wasn’t like I was hoping for something like that or told him to turn away. Actually, I thought I was going to get a face-on and he just turned, and I was like, oh, I’ll just keep that.”
2024 | Orlando, Fla.
Tiger and Charlie Woods
Griffey captured Tiger Woods watching his son, Charlie, putting at a golf event in Orlando. “I’ve known Tiger since he was 15; he did a clinic in Seattle. There’s the good, the bad and the ugly throughout the years, but you see the joy he has when he’s watching Charlie play.”
Griffey said his renaissance as a photographer started when his children were playing sports.
“As a dad, I’m more ecstatic and happy for what they do than anything that I’ve done,” he said. “There are going to be some kids who are good. There are going to be some kids who are bad. All I’m looking for is effort, because I feel that if you give me effort, you’re going to give me effort in life.”